Travelers take action after seeing Swastika on billboard

A billboard featuring the likeness of President Obama in Northeastern Arizona has received a lot of attention, but not for any reasons related to the billboard itself.

The billboard, located along a stretch of I-40 near milepost 328, features President Obama's face along Mount Rushmore, and someone painted a large Swastika next to the President's face.

The billboard is on private property, and the hate symbol has been on it for a while. Over the past 14 months, several have tweeted about it while driving past it.

A couple from Northern California saw the symbol of hate while they were driving to Oklahoma last week for a family visit. In the end, they took matters into their own hands after they contacted ADOT about removing the hate symbol.

"And he said, 'oh yeah, we know about it, I made a few calls, the owner lives out of state, and there's nothing we can do about it,'" said Leigh Davenport.

She and James DeVoer decided to not stand by and wait for someone on to fix it. On their way back to California, the two decided to do something. The two bought some paint and a paint roller, and painted over the Swastika.

"It felt good to be able to erase it," said DeVoer.

For DeVoer, the offending symbol was especially personal. His great-grandfather was imprisoned during World War II.

"It hit us personally," said Davenport. "We want to make sure something like a Swastika hate speech is not normalized."

According to a statement, ADOT officials said they are working with the property owner for a solution, but had trouble tracking down the billboard's owner. They also said travelers should report offensive signage along a highway to ADOT, instead of taking matters in their own hands.